The Changing Face of Digital Media & Marketing : marketer

Global Expansion of Social Networks

Scott Berg — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:46:00 GMT

While reviewing the latest e-marketer article on Social Networking I found it interesting that Russia’s growth in people who created a social network profile was at 85.3%. India, China, Brazil follow with growth in the 60 to 70% some odd range.

Frankly those numbers surprised me… let me explain:

1. Technology – the technology pipeline in these countries seems to be developing faster than what I estimated….allowing for stable platforms, etc.

2. Time Spent – if these countries follow the US… look for shifts in media time spent to shift more to the digital side vs. the traditional media landscape.

3. Content Growth – with higher demand and usage will come the increased demand for content… with more video shifting to digital/online for viewing vs. current TV or satellite use.

We live in an increasingly “connected age”…as technology continues to expand, the world gets smaller, the access to information becomes easier and the authenticity of our brands is more important than ever.

Scott

Fortune Conference - Mark Hurd and Jeffrey Katzenberg

Scott Berg — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:48:00 GMT

Great video of our CEO Mark Hurd and Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks on the marriage between HP and DreamWorks. Enjoy!

Scott

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Houston Interactive Marketing Association Presentation

Scott Berg — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:46:00 GMT

(Please visit the site to view this media)I had the opportunity to present to the Houston Interactive Marketing Association (HiMA) a couple of weeks ago. This group is really a fantastic organization dedicated to teaching and providing guidance to teh Houston marketing community. We had a very lively discussion with 200 or so marketers from the Houston area. I've attached the presentation and video if you'd like to take a look.

Scott

(Please visit the site to view this media)

The Internationalist Awards for Innovative Digital Marketing Solutions

Scott Berg — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:25:00 GMT

I have the honor of working with some of the leaders in the Digital Marketing world regarding a new Digital Marketing Solution Awards Event. Some of those names include Rob Norman, CEO of GroupM, Rishad Tobaccowala, CEO of Denuo and Chief Innovation Officer, Publicis Group. As you can tell these fellow judges are the cream of the crop – and the leaders who I and many of you look to for leadership and thoughts.

That being said…I’ve attached some information below on how to enter and participate.

A big thanks to Deborah Malone and the staff at The Internationalist for helping to drive this unique digital award judging.

Scott

…………………………………………………………….

"We have moved from language-based or analog marketing to a system now dependent on 'ones' and 'zeros' or digital codes. Our way of creating marketing solutions must also now transform dramatically.." -Scott Berg, HP's Director of Digital Strategy and Jury Chairman

www.internationalist-awards.com

Marketers, today, need digital answers, but formulating the right questions is often challenging. With dozens of new forms of non-traditional advertising, the digital options can be overwhelming. Our industry can benefit from examples of best practices. Marketers today need digital solutions that bring results.

The Internationalist Awards for Innovative Digital Marketing Solutions will be the first international awards to be given based upon the geographic footprint of the campaign, specifically: a global campaign, a regional campaign, a local execution of a multinational campaign, and a local campaign worthy of international adaptation based upon world class standards.

These Awards are an outgrowth of The Internationalist's Awards for Innovation in Media and an acknowledgment of how today's marketing strategy is affected by the growth of Digital. They also reflect the way companies market their products. No other awards offer these types of international categories. Most are by product group (food, auto) or type of media (TV, print).

It's simple to enter-- just answer 5 critical questions about insights and solutions, the show up to 3 examples of the work. There are only 4 international entry categories.

CALL FOR ENTRIES DEADLINE is SEPTEMBER 8, 2009.

Winners will be announced in Autumn 2009. A Grand Prix will be announced, along with Gold, Silver and Bronze winners in each of the 4 international entry categories.

Winners will receive:

An Award statuette for office display.
The Internationalist will feature a story on the winners in its next edition.
All winners, including Honorable Mentions, will be showcased on www. internationalist-awards.com. A search feature will enable people to better access case study highlights.
Oxford University's SAID School of Business will use the winners as teaching case studies in their marketing program.

For more information on Judging, the Jury, Fees, and How to Enter, go to:

http://www.internationalist-awards.com

Created in January 2003 by Deborah Malone, The Internationalist was launched to connect the people and ideas in international advertising, marketing and media. Today The Internationalist has become a trusted source for international best practices, and is dedicated to the business needs and challenges of international marketing professionals as they participate in multinational branding and campaign building. The Internationalist is now IN PRINT, ONLINE and IN PERSON- all to better serve the needs of this community.

“Metrics Madness” – You’re Nuts!

Scott Berg — Wed, 27 May 2009 18:18:00 GMT

I was catching up on my reading last night and happened to read Al Ries’s Column “Metric Madness: Running biz by the numbers is just not logical” in the May 4, 2009 issue of AdAge.

With all due respect, Mr. Ries makes an argument that marketing is to focused on math, ROI, etc. I’ll let you review the column yourself, but Mr. Ries ends his article with the following… “Mathematics is logical. Marketing is not. That’s why marketing is so difficult to learn.”

Well Mr. Ries… I’ve got a different take on the situation and frankly don’t agree with a number of points. Let me explain.

The Language of Business of Numbers: Guess what, I didn’t make up this rule, but any good manager, CEO or marketing person should understand this.

The purpose of companies is to make money. Yep, it’s as simple as that. That point is especially important when you have investors or shareholders….for some reason they actually want a company to be profitable – hey I know its “crazy talk” but they want to make money off of their investment.

Authenticity and Character: You reference in your article about having the accountants come in and “shift some of the numbers around” to meet your purposes and that “one of our biggest complaints about management is its tendency to run things by the numbers.

I grant you that the recent financial crisis doesn’t show the best side of the financial sector. But that is an issue of Authenticity and Character. The people who made those decisions were absolutely wrong… but it’s more than “shifting numbers” it’s a question of character.

Also, perhaps one of the reasons the media and advertising business has been dealing with the “rise of procurement” inside of companies is because of the very situation you mentioned agencies are doing – “shifting the numbers.”

Your point that “Mathematics is logical. Marketing is not.”

I could not disagree with you more. The greatest connection engine on the planet “the internet” allows marketers to understand not only what’s working, but what’s not. It helps us determine whether creative is performing… what creative we should run. Marketing is logical and disagree that it’s tough to learn. It’s not. But we make it difficult as marketers and agencies because we don’t take the extra step to understand what the numbers are telling us. Numbers aren’t like some bad voodoo spell. They are a guidebook into the thoughts, hearts and passions of our customers. Metrics are a good thing… it’s allowed us to stop wasteful marketing investments and increase our market share by focusing our efforts.

I was Media Director at HP for 5 years – managing a huge amount of media spend across the world. Every single media rep, agency, etc. told me the same story. Our media (or agency) can deliver sales – my questions back was prove it? Put your money wear your mouth is… if your agency or media property can deliver sales then guess what?... go on 100% commission of each product your campaign or media vehicle sells.

Walk in the Clients Shoes:

You think you’ve got a tough job. Try sitting in the client chair for a week. Where we have to show results, where you’re held to sales, profit and market share numbers, where we have to stand in front of management and explain why something didn’t work. Thus, we need math and metrics to help us make informed decisions on the allocation of our financial and labor resources. If one agency is performing better… guess what? they’ll probably get more business. If a campaign is performing better than another one….we’ll probably make a tough decision to shut it down.

Scott

Guest Blogger -- Jay Dark - Manager, Global Mobile Marketing

Scott Berg — Fri, 08 May 2009 12:58:00 GMT

12 Global Brands Come Together for a User-Generated Advertising Contest

Mofilm (www.mofilm.com) is spearheading an effort across 12 global brands to give consumers around the world the opportunity to create and share their voices on one or more of the participating brands. The contest is being held in conjunction with the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival in June and the Mofilm event is being hosted by Spike Lee.

This is the first time a user-generated advertising event of of this scale and collaboration has been attempted. The brands are all chartered to reach out to their own customers, brand enthusiasts, and networks thereby delivering against the contest theme of “You to the Power of 12 - U12” If successful, this contest could contribute to another change in the face of media in terms of how advertising content is created and obtained. Will it obsolete existing ad creative and production services? Not at all but it will add another option to the mix and potentially even create another service agencies can provide and help facilitate for their clients.

Are you creative? Do you know people that are? Tell them about the contest and have them download the HP creative brief (http://cannes.mofilm.com/hp/) and take a chance at fame.

Jay Dark - Manager, Global Mobile Marketing

Are We Teaching Future Marketers the Right Stuff?

Scott Berg — Sun, 03 May 2009 02:07:00 GMT

Great article from a survey by e-Marketer on the changes in digital spend. I won’t recap it in this blog post…but for those of you who keep predicting the comeback of print, you won’t be happy with the article.

And what I read between the lines… is the need for people who understand the entire digital marketing mix as well as individual experts within the specific digital domain. That being said, I am concerned our colleges and universities are teaching marketers skills that aren’t remotely what we need today and in the future.

I work with a couple of major universities on curriculum and it’s certainly something they are reviewing as well. So what can all of us do?

Get Involved – with your local university or college and help them understand the changing marketplace.
Ensure your HR department understands the change in skill demand and communicates it the schools you recruit from.
Mentor – students to ensure they understand the requirements and skills they will need.
Internships – offer them to students during the summer… (NOTE: don’t have them fill your coffee cup or make copies). Have them get intimately involved in the digital programs and initiatives your company is working on.

Scott

When Will Things Get Back to Normal?

Scott Berg — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:23:00 GMT

During the past 6 months, I can’t tell you the number of times someone has commented about “when will things settle down” or “I can’t wait until things get back to normal.” And although I’m a bit nostalgic about wanting things to settle down and “get back to normal” I’ve come to realize this is the new norm for the media, digital and advertising industry. So what is the new norm? Tough question to answer, but here’s my stab at a few of the general themes.

Technology will drive new media models -- for instance, HP’s own MagCloud allows anyone to be a publisher, thus, opening up a new way to go to market for both small and large publishers.
Buzz will rule/Listening will be critical – just look at the Dominoes situation and the recent Swine Flu discussions occurring on Twitter. Not only does marketing need to listen to customer’s requirements, complaints, etc. but PR will need to be much more active in the listening and decisions they make related to response. Getting in front of a story is moving from hours to respond to minutes.
Advertising budgets will continue to fracture – given more avenues to reach the customer and the need to purchase additional tools, metrics to react and manage the communication ecosystem.
Media plans will migrate to communication plans – is Twitter a media type? What about blogs? Who knows? Who really cares? The bottom line, companies will use these different channels and the media plan will reflect these new realities.
Campaigns will morph into communication ecosystem management – being able to influence, analyze and put metrics around the entire purchase funnel on a consistent basis will drive companies to manage the ecosystem vs. coming in and out of the market with campaigns. This will be a necessity given the need to manage and forecast financial performance on a more consistent basis.
Media properties will either “thrive or die” – all you have to do is look at the news daily to see companies merging, selling to someone or shutting down. I don’t think this will be limited to just traditional media…the next phase could start impacting online sites, content distribution platforms and toolsets.
“Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is” – companies will begin to require true performance aka sales as a measure of a media channel or properties worth. Let’s face it, everyone says media works during the sales pitch… if that’s the case, guarantee it. If you hit targets you get paid, if you don’t hit them, you don’t get paid.
Media representatives and properties will become consultants vs. sales focused – see #7 as the reason why.
The workday will be 24 by 7 vs. 8 to 5. See above.
Change will be the only constant…we will all be faced with major differing challenges every single day – our worth will be determined not only by our financial performance to the companies bottom line, but in our ability to manage change.

Welcome to the reality!

Scott

New Blogging Stats from e-Marketer

Scott Berg — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 17:00:00 GMT

Saw this recent post from e-Marketer on blogging …. the statistics are staggering. E-marketer estimates that in 2009, 96.6 million internet users in the US will read a blog at least once a month. That’s amazing… to think that many people want to interact with once another.

In 2013, e-Marketer estimates the number to increase to 128.2M or 58% of all US internet users.

For those who think social media is a fad – I would recommend you “wake up & smell the coffee.” People are communicating in a completely different way through the world’s largest connection engine – the internet.

Scott

Cannes Advertising Festival and HP’s MoFilm

Scott Berg — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:46:00 GMT

I love the Cannes Festival… from the stunning background of the city, to the brilliant speakers, to seeing the best work in the field of marketing and advertising, what more could you ask for?

And this year, HP is participating in a unique program MOFilm – a mobile project in which HP and other major advertisers are having individuals create user generated content based on a specific brand objectives. Famed Director Spike Lee is even involved in the project.

Prizes from HP range from a trip to the Sundance Film Festival, an HP Touchsmart PC and an HP MediaSmart Server.

Check out the article on hp.com or go directly to the MoFilm web site for more information. So let the social media content games begin!

Scott

A Solution for Magazine and Newspaper Companies

Scott Berg — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:39:00 GMT

MagCloud is HP’s newest solution for the print world… essentially as Michael Mendenhall our CMO as said it is the “democratization of print.” I’ve attached the video from Michael’s recent speech at the IAB convention.

If any print publishers are interested in this very unique way of printing… just let me know and I’ll make sure to get you some additional info on MagCloud. If you want to look at something immediately just check out our website.

Moving from Marketing/Advertising Campaigns to Ecosystem Management

Scott Berg — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 18:54:00 GMT

No question the marketing and advertising industry is going through a seismic shift. And although the main-line and industry press continues to focus the headlines on declines in budgets and the shut down of newspapers – frankly, I believe the shift is much more fundamental and reduced budgets and newspaper shutdowns are merely symptoms of this shift.

As marketers many of us have focused our efforts on two fundamental efforts:

Brand and
Demand Generation

We first got them to fall in love with the brand and then cycled them through the purchase funnel to the ultimate sale.

However, as content, access and user involvement have become more and more prevalent, it’s time for us to rethink our strategies. We need to connect, engage and listen to customers at every single point along the “relationship” curve.

Point A: Discover – the brand

Point B: Find – find the brand or product

Point C: Confirmation/Validation – checking with others to gain confidence to purchase

Point D: Transact – buying the product

Point E: Support – providing outstanding support post sale

Point F: Feedback/Share – listening to customers about what they are sharing with others

When you look at the entire purchase or engagement funnel or as I like to say “the ecosystem” – you fundamentally are forced to look at how you deploy your marketing funding based on what your customer is doing, not based on media type. In fact, you might necessarily deploy media dollars as much as create engagement platforms, communities, forums, listening tools, metrics platforms, etc.

So start looking at your customer ecosystem…. See where you’re strong, weak, etc. and begin improving and strengthening the system – based on customer requirements vs. a traditional or pre-defined media mix.

Scott

2009 Digital Media Trends – Update & Scorecard

Scott Berg — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 17:28:00 GMT

Late last year I posted my 2009 Digital Media Trends. I thought it would be a good idea to see where they stand as well as add in a few other trends I’m starting to see emerge.

It’s the Economy Stupid...

More newspapers and print publications will go out of business -- I hate to actually say this one is dead on. All you have to read are the following articles on the demise of newspapers across the US.

San Francisco Chronicle Might Shut Down

Denver Rocky Mountain News Shuts Down

Derby Daily Reporter Shutting Down

Taconic Group Newspapers Shut Down

Accuracy: Dead On

Weaker online sites will see advertising revenue sales fall – the economy is not only pushing pure “print” revenue down, but newspapers online revenue as well as “pure play” digital advertising is taking a hit as budgets get tight.

Search Revenue Falling

Online Video Ad Revenue Decreasing

Digital Shops Begin to Feel Effects of the Economy

Accuracy: Dead On

Sponsorships will take a beating….

RBS Sports Sponsorships

Sports Sponsorships Take a Beating

Accuracy: Dead On

Social Websites will see a decrease in ad revenue –

Accuracy: Too early to tell

Community development will be a priority – marketers will engage differently with the end customer by developing stronger communities and/or engaging with current standing communities.

Accuracy: Too early to tell

Rise of the “Un-Badged Employee” – most people use reviews before making a product or service purchase… but in an economic downturn, that input revs up to make sure the purchase is what the consumer wants. Check out this article.

Accuracy: Dead on

SEO will become more important – with decreased budgets, SEM will also feel the budget pinch, so advertisers will focus more attention on SEO to decrease costs and increase search page placement.

US Search Spending Falters

Accuracy: Too early to tell

Again, mobile will struggle – tough to tell right now… but keep your eyes/ears tuned in the coming months.

Mobile Marketing Watch Newsletter

Accuracy: Too early to tell

Google will continue to gain share – ok this is a “duh” prediction, I admit it. But with Yahoo in turmoil, the recent layoffs, Microsoft not making headway on revenue in the online space… Google will extend it’s lead – either by sure will might and force or through acquisition.

Google’s Share Extends

Accuracy: Dead On

Online Upfronts get more momentum –

Accuracy: Too early to tell (but if I was a betting man) – I’d say I’m way off on this one. Prices are falling as demand craters… who wants to get locked in on long term inventory when the short term rates continue to fall.

Digital television platform (aka Canoe Ventures) will get serious attention – Certainly the new administration pushing back the digital transition date didn’t help, but frankly with the advertising world in a tail spin right now, Canoe still holds promise of better targeting….although I think most advertisers wished it were live and ready to go today.

Accuracy: Too early to tell

CRM and database marketing will make a comeback – well I’m not seeing it yet… although my email box is deluged daily with a great deal more email than ever, but I can’t attribute that to better CRM or just desperation on behalf of marketers. Plus, with the economy in the dumper, big tech projects are harder to sell unless they can guarantee a result.

Accuracy: Seems I was a bit too optimistic

Media inventory costs will decline – regardless of whether you’re buying upfront or not. This one is definitely on track… with the networks taking a bath on inventory, newspapers having difficulty selling pages prices are falling. What’s concerning is we’re only in March…what will this look like in July?

Accuracy: Dead On

Scott

What To Do About the Meltdown in Media

Scott Berg — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 01:44:00 GMT

Apocalypse is one of those words that I remember from bible study as a kid. The word itself just sounds scary – even if I didn’t know what it meant it would freak me out. But it seems everyday we’re hearing about media companies making massive layoffs, shutting down publications, cutting costs and the like. Even the agencies are cutting staff because of client budget cuts and the need for leaner expenses on the income statement.

So as a client what should you do? Here are a couple of thoughts:

Lock in Low Prices. Just like the stock market – you buy low and sell high. So why not negotiate hard with media suppliers for lower CPM’s and lock those prices in for 2-4 years and with the ability to further reduce if thing get worse. When the economy does turn-around, you’ll get a higher ROI aka make more money.
Renegotiate. Why not renegotiate your contracts with agencies and suppliers? Think about it… if your media/marketing spend has gone you’re paying more fixed and variable costs as a % of media/marketing spend. So renegotiate the costs and contracts in order to keep those “non working dollars” as low as possible (or at least even). While you’re at it, why don’t you put in some clauses that put some of the supplier/agencies income at risk? If your company or campaigns do well… the agency does well.
Step up the SEO. Get your webmaster to increase the SEO terms on your web site so you’re not paying for terms that your own website should drive.
Fish Where the Fish Are. Dig deeper into your database and determine who those best customers are and start using a Recency, Frequency, Monetary Value model to determine who is likely to response. To learn more about RFM I recommend you read the book “Libey and Pickering on RFM and Beyond” by Don Libey and Christopher Pickering.
Get Closer to Your Customer. If you haven’t been talking to your customers – get to it and start. If you’re not talking to them, odds are your competitor is.
Listen, Listen, Listen. Do I need to say more? If your customers are telling you they want x from your product… give them x. Stop listening to 30 person focus groups and start listening to the entire web, including blogs, social media, etc. There’s a number of software available… many free some that you have to invest in. Check out a product from a company called Aubice.
Look Deep into Your Organization for Recommendations. I’ve often found the best ideas from the deepest parts of the company. So start having lunch and coffee with a new group of folks and start asking them for their ideas.
Get Even Leaner! You’ve probably had to cut budgets, perhaps even some headcount… but start eliminating or reducing costs. Couple of areas to think about: Ad Serving Costs, Agency/Supplier Costs (see points 1 & 2), get rid employees who are deadwood and replace them with many of the outstanding professionals looking for employment, conferences (do you really need to go?), stop traveling all over kingdom come and use technology and the good old phone.
Shift Channels. If your customers costs are getting out of hand – for instance they’re calling your call center a ton…. Perhaps you should start to direct them to the web where they can self serve themselves.
Lead. If you’re not stepping up to make the tough decisions… start. If you’re planning on “keeping under the radar” until the current economic environment turns, then I’d recommend you refresh your resume.

Scott

Leadership During The Storm

Scott Berg — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 01:40:00 GMT

Leadership During The Storm

I’m disgusted. Yep, I said it. For the last 6 months I’ve read and heard more negative comments and excuses about why businesses are having problems… but few solutions. And frankly, I’m disappointed by the lack of the marketing community leadership during these times of economic challenge.

This is the time, when marketing and advertising professionals need to step up and take a significant leadership role within businesses. But more often than not, they are now defending their budgets vs. taking this active role.

So what are we doing at HP? Well first of all we’re not making excuses. We’ve held fast to our 2009 financial commitment during our recent earnings announcement. Second, we’re changing… to better meet the needs of our customers. Third, we’re getting even more efficient on the marketing front. Fourth, we’re making the tough decisions. Fifth, (and perhaps most important), we’ve accepted the fact that WE must encourage and implement change and finally, we have to do it as if today were the last day on the planet.

Leadership is tough, marketing leadership is even tougher – there is a quote that I love:

“A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd.”

Scott